Konvas 1M Modification: OCT19 and Nikon Lens Mounts

Details: Created on Monday, 09 June 2008 21:00; Last Updated on Friday, 14 December 2012 20:15; Written by Patrick Steele; Hits: 6876

Larry Mckee's and Les Bosher's Konvas 1M Modifications

Konvas 1M with Mattebox and Follow Focus Unit

Months ago, I received this message from Larry McKee, outlining the lens mount mods a British camera engineer performed on his 1M. His photos and description of the process follow herewith:

I bought a 1M and a 17EP motor from Serhiy Piskunov (Ebay ID sp314) and I loved it. The only thing I didn't like was I couldn't use a follow focus unit with it. While I was still researching the Konvas cameras, prior to purchasing one, I ran across Les Bosher's website which talked about being able to convert the turret to a still photography mount.

I emailed Les about having a Nikon mount installed. He said that he could also mount focus gears onto my Nikon lenses. I was about to send my camera to him when I saw that Rafael Pankratau (Rafcamera) had a 1M body for sale. I bought the body and had Rafael ship it to Les.

Before Les had a chance to start on it, I emailed him with another idea. Why couldn't we put two ports on the new turret with the second one set up for OCT-19? Les thought about it for a couple days then let me know he had it figured out. Did he ever! I still can't get over the precision machining. Les Bosher is an artist. He took metal away from some places and added it to others. When I saw it for the first time, I could see why he had to think about how to make it work. But make it work he did. The result is a thing of beauty. The combination of mounts makes it a very versatile tool.